The man behind the desk leapt out of his chair, and Forrest dropped Turnip on the ground.
“I am the Earl of Raine.”
The young man paled, and then he disappeared.
“Pompous oaf,” Zach whispered.
“That’s Lord Pompous Oaf to you.”
Zach tittered.
The door behind them opened, and in came another man. He wore the dress of a well-to-do gentleman.
“Amble? I thought you were unwell this season?” Gabe said.
“My wife wished to come to town.” His tone was even more pompous than Gabe’s.
Amble, Forrest thought. How many people had a name like that? He remembered the two elderly women in 11 Nobby Lane.
“I arrived to find I’d been violated, Raine! Some lowlife entered my home and robbed me. I have no idea what the world is coming to when such things are happening to a personage such as I.”
He was pale, and sweat dampened his brow. In fact, he looked about ready to pass out.
“I hope what you have is not catching, Amble?” Zach stepped back.
“I have delicate constitution, Deville.”
“Which means what?”
“Gout, man!”
“Toes?” Gabe asked, looking down.
“The entire left foot.” He moved to sink into one of the chairs.
“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person,” Zach muttered. “Man’s an absolute leech on society. Everyone loathes him after he kicked out his aunts, leaving them destitute.”
“They simply disappeared,” Gabe added under his voice. “The duchess was their friend, and we have tried to find them for her, but with no luck.”
“Why would they disappear when clearly they had friends who would look after them?” Forrest asked.
Gabe shrugged. “Pride and shame perhaps. I have no idea.”
Christ, were those women living with Ruby Lord Amble’s aunts?
“I say, Raine!” Amble shouted across the room. “There is a man at your feet, bound hand and foot.”
“No? Is there really?” Gabe drawled.
“I have to say, I’m quite happy about him being robbed,” Zach whispered. “One hopes that his old aunts were in some way involved, yet I doubt they could be.”
Forrest thought about that for a few minutes. “Where is his house?”
“Brooks Street,” Zach said.
He went through the street names he knew and then everything inside him went cold. He’d passed the end of Brooks Street on horseback with his cousins one night. It had been the night he’d found Ruby looking scared. She hurried away when someone had called her name.
Surely not.
